Cory AllenThe Great Order

Every time I hear one of Cory Allen’s releases, I’m always amazed that he’s not more of a household name among drone/electronica lovers. For years, he’s been releasing wonderful drone-based works on his excellentQuiet Design label, and like many of the more well-known artists that his label’s released (among them Duane Pitre, Sebastien Roux, and Alvin Lucier), his releases have frequently struck an admirable balance between academic technique and emotional resonance. His newest release, The Great Order, follows in this tradition with the unique exception of being Allen’s first release to feature exclusively acoustic instruments (all recorded live in the studio, no less). Allen created a self-organizing structure/set of rules to guide these two side-long pieces in order to achieve a near homogeneous deep-listening-esque soundworld with his ensemble. The results are pretty gorgeous and vaguely reminiscent of Duane Pitre’s latest work with its seamlessly staggered entrances and robust harmonies seemingly based off of the harmonic series. It’s an impressively ambitious composition that shows off a whole new side of Allen’s aesthetic and will hopefully nudge him further into the vocabulary of drone lovers everywhere.

The Great Order is out now via Quiet Design and you can stream excerpts of the album below.